Raptors lean on defence to get past Pelicans

TORONTO – For a couple of tenuous moments, it appeared as if 24 minutes of sturdy defensive play on Monday evening by the Toronto Raptors could be utterly undone by 12 unhealthy ones.

After limiting the New Orleans Pelicans to 40 factors within the first half, the Raptors allowed 35 within the third quarter and watched their 16-point halftime benefit flip right into a one-point deficit coming into the fourth.

“I assumed that turnovers and shot choice led to issues that we had with transition defence and them scoring fairly a bit,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic mentioned.

“And that was precisely the message that I delivered to our guys, that we bought to get again to defending on a excessive degree, and that we have to transfer the ball and play for one another.”

Rajakovic’s phrases seemingly labored wonders.

The Raptors responded with a 17-6 run to begin the fourth quarter that was punctuated by the ejection of Pelicans coach Willie Inexperienced for arguing a name. Scottie Barnes hit the next pair of technical free throws to place the Raptors backup 10 en path to a 113-104 victory.

Toronto (14-32) has now received 4 straight and 6 of its previous seven contests, whereas New Orleans (12-35) dropped its third straight.

It was the newest victory in what has turn into a shocking turnaround for a Raptors workforce that continues to be thirteenth within the Japanese Convention and 5 video games again of the play-in match.

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The widespread theme all through the profitable stretch has been defence — the Raptors have allowed greater than the 104 factors they conceded Monday simply twice throughout their present run.

Toronto restricted the Pelicans to hitting simply 21.4 per cent of their three-pointers as they shot 43.9 per cent general from the sphere.

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And the sport turned when the Raptors held the Pelicans to 4 factors within the first four-plus minutes of the ultimate body.

Rajakovic mentioned the defensive uptick is a results of improved effort.

“I’m teaching for 28, 29 years, and nonetheless didn’t discover a defensive schemes the place 4 gamers play defence and one just isn’t giving nice effort, and that defence works.

“That was occurring to us fairly a bit early within the season, that three guys, 4 guys doing what they’re purported to do, and one participant could be late half of a second or doesn’t observe the sport plan, and that creates lots of breakdowns. Proper now, we now have all the blokes locked in.”

A type of guys is Scottie Barnes, who adopted up Japanese Convention participant of the week honours earlier within the day with a 21-point, 11-rebound double-double and eight assists in addition.

Beginning centre Jakob Poeltl additionally had a 21-point double-double whereas hauling in 14 rebounds.

Rajakovic known as Poeltl the Raptors’ “connector.”

“You’ve got a recreation plan, however typically that stuff simply goes out the window and it’s important to make one thing up on the fly. And in these conditions, it’s necessary to have the fitting communication, get everyone on the identical web page,” Poeltl mentioned.

The Pelicans additionally didn’t pose the hardest of opponents — they rank within the backside third of the NBA offensively and had been with out star scorer Brandon Ingram, who continues to be recovering from an ankle damage suffered on Dec. 7.

Nonetheless, Chris Boucher — who scored 14 factors off the bench and mentioned after the sport that he’s listening to opponents discuss with him as a “scorching shooter” amid a scorching capturing stretch of his personal — mentioned progress on the defensive finish begins with will.

“I believe whoever’s in entrance of us, I believe everyone’s taking pleasure in guarding them and we’re taking part in collectively, too. … If there’s a swap and someone’s smaller, you gotta hit ’em out. We’re transferring on a string,” Boucher mentioned.

The Raptors’ current profitable type should still be a blip. In spite of everything, the workforce not too long ago endured a stretch of 16 losses in 17 video games, whereas back-to-back wins over the Atlanta Hawks final week tripled the workforce’s street victory whole to a few.

However for a younger workforce like Toronto, a blip may very well be necessary as proof of idea transferring ahead.

“We’re making an attempt to do one thing that I consider goes to carry us leads to the long term, however I additionally know that it’s not going to occur in a single day and it’s going to actually demand lots of work,” Rajakovic mentioned earlier than the sport.

“I believe we now have nice buy-in from our gamers. They actually personal it, they’re actually taking part in laborious.”

SOCCER ROYALTY

Canada’s Christine Sinclair, soccer’s all-time main worldwide goal-scorer, sat courtside in a sweatshirt bearing the emblem of the Toronto Tempo, town’s incoming WNBA growth workforce. The group at Scotiabank Area welcomed her with a standing ovation.

Fellow soccer star Dwayne De Rosario was additionally in the home to mark 500 days till the 2026 World Cup involves Canada.

And for good measure, embellished Canadian Olympic gymnast Ellie Black was seated courtside as nicely.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 27, 2025.

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